Four days after Hurricane Sandy tore through the United States, the East Coast is still reeling. When the storm’s deadly winds and colossal waves ripped into cities big and small, it left decimated buildings, ruined homes, and destroyed lives in its path. The worst storm in centuries caused more death and destruction than rescuers are capable of grasping. As they—and we—struggle to come to terms with the large-scale devastation, The Daily Beast takes a look at some of the areas that suffered the brunt of the blow.
When it made landfall in Atlantic City, N.J., at about 8 p.m. Monday night, Hurricane Sandy ripped through the city’s iconic boardwalk—the first in America—splintering its frame and causing unimaginable damage. A few days later, a man took a perilous walk through the damage.
As a system of levees failed to contain Sandy, businesses and homes in Little Ferry, N.J., were inundated with water. The largest storm to hit the region in decades, it caused massive destruction to the city’s infrastructure.
Peter Foley / EPA-Landov
Bay Head, N.J., known for its beautiful beach, suffered some of the worst damage in the United States, with many residents saying their lives have been completely destroyed. On the town’s main street, restaurants and bakeries filled with sand and mud, while ovens, toasters, and mixers floated out to sea.
Adam Hunger / Reuters-Landov
With so many towns and cities flooded, several states advised residents to boil water before consuming it. That didn’t stop some from using the water in other ways, however. Here, volunteer firefighter Mike McCormick pauses at a stop sign while paddling a canoe down the streets of his town.
A roller coaster made famous by the MTV reality show Jersey Shore sits in the Atlantic Ocean after the Fun Town pier it sat on was destroyed by Superstorm Sandy in Seaside Heights, N.J. With the death toll continuing to rise and millions of homes and businesses without power, the East Coast is attempting to recover from the effects of floods.
Mark Wilson / Getty Images
Across the river from New York City, Hoboken was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy—leaving flooded streets, homes, and many of the 50,000 residents without power. Hoboken residents relied heavily on the National Guard to help locate stranded family members.
A man surveys the damage at the Paradise Park trailer park in Highlands, N.J. The storm continues to affect business and daily life throughout much of the state.
A table and two chairs are all that remains of a destroyed home on Cedar Grove Avenue on the south side of Staten Island, N.Y. Many houses were heavily damaged or completely destroyed by flooding from Sandy.
Mike Segar / Reuters-Landov
The remains of a restaurant destroyed by Sandy on the south shore of Staten Island. Rescuers searched flooded streets and swamped houses for survivors and drivers lined up for hours to get scarce gasoline in the area, where millions remain without power.
A worker squeegees out the basement of the Verizon building in lower Manhattan on Thursday. Telecommunications companies said they were working to restore service after floods and power outages from Sandy affected mobile phones, Internet, home phones, and cable television.
Carlo Allegri / Reeuters-Landov
A section of a water-damaged Torah, one of six damaged in floods from Sandy, is laid out Thursday at the Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe (FREE) of Brighton Beach synagogue and community center in Brooklyn. A school at the center was flooded, leaving 140 students from grades 1-6 and Rabbi Avremel, its director, scrambling to find a location.
Bebeto Matthews / AP
An NYPD officer stands on top of the Rockaway Beach boardwalk, devastated by Sandy, in Queens, N.Y. Consolidated Edison said Thursday it still had about 659,400 homes and businesses in New York without power, three days after the monster storm.
